Page:Weird Tales Volume 30 Number 02 (1937-08).djvu/50

 laughter. It was a continuous struggle between man and the river, but eventually the river won. The little family, like a million others, was reduced to a state of starvation perched on the fringe of death. It was at this time that Jasmine urged her father to sell her into slavery, so that the rest of the family might be freed from their shackles of poverty. Despite the feeble protests of those dear to her, Jasmine's will prevailed. Through an agent in Peking who was famous for his traffic in women, she eventually found herself the property of Wang Mok. Never had she beheld a mansion more beautiful, nor a garden more fragrant. At night when the moon was high, Wang Mok lingered with her in one of the tiny pavilions that stood like a jewel on the edge of an artificial lake, and drew her to his breast.

Jasmine desired more than anything else to please Wang Mok, for Wang Mok had made her family comparatively affluent. Now they were the one prosperous clan in a village of beggars. It pleased them to flaunt their success. And though Jasmine gave herself to Wang Mok willingly, she was never stirred by his wooing. To her he had far less personality than the moon or the trees that grew in the garden.

Now that he had a new ear, Wang Mok's esteem of himself increased. He never appreciated the worth of his ear until it had been snatched from him. And so the sleep of Wang Mok was calm and serene, but unfortunately it did not remain so for long. Presently a night came when he tossed upon his kong and groaned in misery, for he seemed to be suffering torture, the same torture that he could hear as though on the breath of the wind from some far-distant place. Sighs and groans and much weeping. Hours on end of torture, and a man sitting in a jail cell, pleading to the gods to smite him down and end sufferings so extreme.

Once more Wang Mok summoned the renowned Doctor Wen Hsi and related the strange occurrences of the night, but to the learned doctor such phenomena were far from a mystery.

"You are wearing the ear of Ming Ti," he explained, "and so you hear all the things that are happening to him. And I might add that at this moment things are happening to him in considerable quantities. For Ming Ti has been arrested once more for being a bandit, and hour after hour he is being tortured with all the refinements and perfection of that gentle art."

"But this must cease," the mandarin said irritably, "for by torturing Ming Ti they are torturing me. Arrange for his release at once."

"I will do so," the doctor said, "and I believe, as ever, your decision is a wise one. I suggest carrying it a step farther, however, to guard against such a thing happening again. Ming Ti is a bandit, and a bandit he will always remain. He will steal anything when urged by poverty, and so efficiently does he squander money that it is a practical impossibility to keep him always in funds. Given the wealth of all China, he would squander it in a few years. It is my thought that if Ming Ti were brought to this garden to dwell for ever in peace and plenty with his own servants to wait upon him the urge to steal would not be sharpened to so keen an edge. And both you and he would be able to sleep of nights, for there would be nothing to interrupt the calm measure of your dreams."

"That is an excellent plan," agreed Wang Mok, and his joy was far in excess of that warranted by the occasion. W.T.—3